(JEWISH GROUP) Vatican Swiss Guard investigated for alleged spitting gesture at Jewish women

A member of the Vatican’s Swiss Guards, the world’s smallest army whose primary role is to protect the pope, is under investigation for allegedly making a spitting gesture towards two Jewish women.

The alleged incident occurred at one of the side entrances to St Peter’s Square as people gathered for a general audience on 29 October, during which Pope Leo condemned antisemitism.

The women were among a Jewish delegation attending the event marking the 60th anniversary of the Nostra aetate, a declaration on the Catholic church’s relations with non-Christian religions.

In an interview with Kathpress, an Austrian Catholic news agency, Michal Govrin, a Tel Aviv-based author and theatre director, said that as she and another woman entered the square a Swiss Guard “noticeably hissed at us with deep contempt, “les juifs” (the Jews)”.

When the guard was challenged, she added, he allegedly “made an act of spitting in our direction with clear contempt”. With Govrin was Vivian Liska, the director of the Institute of Jewish Studies in Antwerp.

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